Fallout: Vault 69
by Son of Fiction
Summary: A story about human nature.
1. From Humble Beginnings

Since the dawn of time, humanity has been a slave to its own animalistic behavior. Anger, greed, lust, these simple instincts have led to countless tragedies, as we were blinded by them, and could only see the short term rewards. Even after atomic fire rained from the sky, giving humanity a chance to start anew, we still resorted to becoming animals.

Nearly 190 years after the nuclear fallout, a small band of travelers came together and formed a trading caravan, marching across the wastes in search of fame and fortune. However, the trials were harsh, and do to constant runs ins with raiders, mutants, and savages, the caravan had barely any supplies to sustain themselves, let alone money. They went on with high hopes, yet they remained unknown by the rest of the world.

One day, the caravan came across the ruins of a village, built out of the remnants of a pre war suburb. All that remained of this village were ashes, corpses, and a small child. The caravan, either out of sympathy or pridefulness, decided to take this child and raise it as their own. The boy called himself Kennedy, and freely went with the group. The boy didn't seem to know what happened to the village, as if he had not paid attention to the slaughtering of his own people. Even when under the care of the caravan, he grew close to none of the travelers, talking to them as if they were acquaintances. The caravan soon grew to dislike Kennedy, but continued to travel with him, as they felt responsible for his safety.

Many years passed, and Kennedy soon grew into a teenager. Sadly, the process had not been kind on him. He had short, scraggly, greasy brown locks, and unkempt facial hair that came out of of his face like patches. His body odor was also unpleasant, and the lack of proper hygiene didn't help. The travelers were growing older as well, and soon they would need to come to terms with the limitations of their own aging bodies. However, one of the travelers, who referred to himself as Rice, was not yet ready to give up his dreams of fame and fortune, and decided that it was time to take a different approach. On their travels, the group found a collection of tents, filled with uniformed men serving something known as the New California Republic.

While the travelers tried to barter off what little they had, and Kennedy ate away at some spare food, Rice began to talk with the camp's sergeant, and the two struck a deal. The NCR would consistently pay the caravan if they delivered rations and supplies from one area to the next, and only traded with settlements which were a part of or allied with the NCR.

When Rice told the others of the offer, the travelers immediately stopped trading with the camp, and packed their supplies to leave. The group did not see eye to eye with Rice, as they wished to gain fortune independently, and not be tied down to any one group. They marked Rice as a traitor to their dream caravan, and demanded that he leave.

"Fine!" yelled Rice, "I don't need any of you, or this stupid caravan! I'll make it big all on my own. Next time you'll see me, I'll be surrounded by caps, booze, and women!"

Kennedy immediately stopped what he was doing and ran over to Rice.

"Did you just say women?" asked Kennedy, looking up at the "traitor."

"Hell yeah, kid! I'll be covered in them!"

"I want to go with you, please."

Like most young men his age, Kennedy had become very interested in the opposite sex, yet life with the caravan denied him the chance of meeting many women who weren't trying to kill them for supplies. Rice was amused by Kennedy's almost pathetic plea, and decided to travel with him as a companion.

And just like that, Kennedy and Rice had left the others. And for the next few years, things seemed to work out for the two. They went from town to town, performing odd jobs to raise enough caps to eat. When they had saved up enough money, they would prepare to move on to the next town. It wasn't an easy life, but it was one that the two were proud of. But one day, while Rice was out hunting radroaches to take care of a settlement's infestation problem, Kennedy tried to get a prostitute to sleep with him. The prostitute took the caps and ran off. When Rice confronted Kennedy, he acted as if none of what had happened was his fault, and refused to apologies for loosing all of their money. This caused a bitterness to grow between the two, and they soon mutually despised each other.

Eventually, Rice decided to leave Kennedy in the middle of the night. When the young man woke up, all that remained was a note, and a strange device.

"Sorry kid, I can't have you tagging along anymore. If we ever meet again, I'll be living it up in one of those summer homes on the beach. I left behind a little something for you to remember me by. I found it in a trash can."

Kennedy picked up the device, and flipped the small switch on it. A digital map popped up, with the words "unofficial Vault Tec vault finder" appearing above it. The map showed Kennedy's current location, and a list of nearby vaults, the underground fallout shelters that humanity took shelter in. One particular vault caught Kennedy's eye.

Vault 69.


	2. Three Men and a Baby

Our basic urges drive us to do irrational things, more so than any other form of desire. They connect to us at a deeper level, to our human nature.

Kennedy's lust drove him to leave his current home with no food, no water, no caps, and no protection. The young man had heard stories of Vault 69, usually from the more sleazy men of the wastes. There was some sort of issue when people were being sent into the vault, and it ended up having a countless amount of women living inside, and no men at all. Logically, if this were true, all of the women should have died out by now, but Kennedy wasn't the brightest person in the irradiated desert. And if a map was promising him the location of this vault, a place with women who haven't seen a man in countless years, he would follow the map to the ends off the earth.

Yet if Kennedy had taken the time to prepare, perhaps he would have been ready to defend himself when crossing a particularly dangerous overpass. Perhaps he would have been able to fend off the three men, each wearing armor made of scrap metals and cloths held together with leather straps, who had all at once surrounded him.

"Now look over here, Jimmies," said one of the men, "we got ourselves a wanderer. You lost, kid?" The man pulled out a rusty, blood stained knife, and sauntered over to his latest victim.

Kennedy, who had never before been without some form of guardian in his life, was unable to bring himself to fight or flee.

"N-n-now lis-, um, listen. I don't, uh, I don't want any trouble."

The man suddenly broke into a sprint, and slammed Kennedy to the ground. Before the boy could get back up, the man clenched his hand around the travelers neck, and held him down.

"Looks like you've just found some trouble."

The man looked back at his two companions. Jimmies, the more unstable looking one, was jumping in glee, as if this was all some sort of game. The other simply watched, his face showing a slight annoyance to it.

"What should I do to him, Jimmies? Cut off his ugly mug?"  
Jimmies squealed in delight. "Yeah yeah yeah! Cut his mug off!" he cried

"Just kill this guy, Tom, and take his shit already," said the third man, breaking his silence.

"Alright, Jill Koy, I'm just trying to have a little fun." Tom held his knife to the boy's neck.

Kennedy squirmed, screamed, cried, but the brute would not release his grasp.

"P-p-please don't k-k-kill me! I j-j-just wanna get to Vault 69!"

A look of surprise popped onto Tom's face, and he quickly pulled the knife away from Kennedy's neck.

"Vault 69? You're shitting me, right? The vault full of whores?

"What? No, no, I'm not shitting you! I found it, I think, look at the machine, it's a map!"

"You can't be serious," yelled Jill Koy, "he'll just run the away! Kill him!"

Tom continued to hold Kennedy's neck, but used his free hand to pick up the device that Kennedy still grasped tightly in his hand.

"Holy shit, this is real! How the hell did you get this, kid?"

Suddenly, Tom yelped in pain as a bullet flew through hand, causing him to drop the machine, release Kennedy, and take hold of his injury. A towering body in what appeared to be a suit of armor approached the group.

"Hand over the device and nobody gets hurt."

"A little too late for that, asshole!" yelled Tom, as he tried to contain the blood flowing from his hand. Kennedy, too frightened for his own life, didn't try to protect his map, and Jill Koy was intelligent enough to know when his life was at risk. Jimmies, however, didn't have any sense of self preservation.

He ran towards the armored man, swinging his steal pipe widely, and was shot right between the eyes.

Without a word, the armored one took the map, and walked away.

For some time, the remaining three stayed on the overpass. Jill Koy attending to his companion's wound, and Kennedy too terrified to run away.

"That fucker killed Jimmies! I liked that crazy mother fucker!" cried Tom. "All for that stupid map!"

"Just calm down Tom, it's over now. We'll head into town and, I don't know, drink in his name or something."

"No way, Jill Koy, we gotta find that vault now. We know the thing's legit, that fucking tin can killed Jimmies for it."

"Tom, that's stupid. We don't even have the map anymore, and you know just as well as I do that we're not gonna walk up to that guy and get it back."

"It's what Jimmies would have wanted. Besides, we got the kid here. You'll help us find the vault, right kid? I wouldn't want to just kill you instead, and waste a perfectly good whore finder."

Kennedy's urge to live made the answer obvious.

"Yeah! Sure! Ok! Just don't kill me, alright!?"

A sinister grin grew on Tom's face.  
"Good, let's head into town and celebrate our new friend here with some drinks."


End file.
